The In-Sect - behaviour

Folding bikes are everywhere around in modern cities. But this bike – the Mountain Monk – solves a completely different problem then slipping around SUVs and outrunning Porsches at the traffic lights.
Imagine having a nice wandering trip in the mountains. Instead of your designer rucksack you carry this bike uphill. It weighs about 9 kg and has enough extra storage for your hearty peak-snack. Once you had your drink you unfold your backpack and change it into a full functioning mountain bike! This prevents meniscus injuries, makes you fast and is a lot of fun.
It will cost about € 1500, when it will be available soon.
Check out the Website of the Bergmönch here.

When I recently searched the web for Tarzan movies I stumbled upon “Tarzan Comes To India” – a cheesy Bollywood movie from 1962 starring Dara Singh. Singh is the most prominent Indian Pehlwani -wrestler of all times and moved into the movie industry in 1962. If you check his filmography on IMDB you can see that he played parts like: King Kong, The Emperor, Alexander the Great, Tarzan, Tarzan’s nemesis, First Man on the Moon, Krishna and – his greatest success – Hanuman.

Even more bizarre: Dara Singh seems to be the Indian bogeyman! I read this article about the lawsuit against Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only surviving gunman behind the Mumbai terror attacks: “On Thursday, when he was laughing at their banter, prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam turned to him and said: “Don’t laugh. Be serious. Otherwise I will call Dara Singh,” a reference to the legendary Indian wrestler often invoked by parents to keep their children quiet. Kasab laughed even more.”

Recently I found out that “The Flintstones” is still running on the same spot at the same time as it did 20 years ago. Fascinated by the fact that this rough drawn, badly animated show still is understood by the audience. And I realized that “The Simpsons” is just a modern version of “The Flintstones”. Homer and Fred could be brothers.
And Ralph Kramden (The Honeymooners), Al Bundy (Married With Children), Dan Connor (Roseanne) and Tim Taylor (Home Improvement) are part of that gene pool too. Why are fathers in comedy shows always lazy, big-mouthed, unadept, mendacious and dim-witted? What about a little variety?
I’m not saying there aren’t comedies with different scenarios – but when family life is the focus of the show the secret of success is a blundering dad. Since 50 years!

Personality tests of doubtful accuracy are around at every second corner of the Internet (pr0n being at all the other corners) – but this one at least comes with a fun activity component: you get to draw a pig. (OK, fun by my standards – go ahead, tell me I need to get a life.)

My piggy (pig-tured above) got me the following assessment:
According to the test, I am a realist, believe in tradition, am friendly, remember dates, am emotional and naive, care little for details and am a risk-taker. I am also secure, stubborn and stick to my ideals. I am a good listener and have an average sex-life.
I’d say that’s, all in all, about 50 % on target – about par for an online personality test.

Remember the good old days, when outfit and attitude (pictured above) alone where sufficient to clearly identify yourself as goth?

Alas, those days are gone – statistics prove that, nowadays, goths are confused for emos with depressing regularity. (Depressing, that is, to any member of either group who wasn’t depressed to begin with.) I see only one hope for goths to survive as a distinctive subculture: immediate re-adoption of the Gothic language.

For too long, goths relied solely on the linguistic idiosyncrasies of Bram Stoker and Anne Rice stitched together to set themselves apart in their manner of speaking – with the Gothic language, they’ll finally dispose of an idiom that is completely hermetic to outsiders.

You can start off your studies on the subject with some handy everyday phrases, before moving on to more comprehensive lessons or a more scholarly resource. (That last bit comes courtesy of the University of Texas at Austin, where, coincidentally, there’s supposed to be a couple of great goth clubs.)

You think I’m confusing something, here? Well, at least I’m not the first one.

Image above mirrored. Somehow. Find out why…

Me and my family are leaving for holidays tomorrow. We will stay in Sweden for three weeks. A friend of us moves in to keep an eye on our home, plants and fridge – I hope she will have a nice time in Bavaria. My brother will keep you informed about the bizarre aspects of the web instead of me and he will answer to your comments instead of me. His English is better than mine and his sense of humor is sharper than mine, so I think everyone in the community will be kept entertained – so say a hello to Xin! His webcomic The B-Movie Comic attracts about ten times the visitors my blog is frequented by so this maybe worth an additional click for your mouse in summer while I’m up for some Kötbullar.